Jonathan Hawley

New Peugeot RCZ

Peugeot RCZ.

As a car company with multiple Le Mans 24 Hour and World Rally Championship victories and more recently a class win at the Bathurst 12 hour race, you’d think Peugeotwould be regarded by the impartial observer as a manufacturer of vibrant and exciting performance cars.

You’d be wrong, and what’s more, Peugeot Australia knows it. That’s why the company is about to kick off a $1 million marketing campaign using its newly facelifted RCZ sports car as an enticement to drag buyers into dealer showrooms on a platform of performance-generated interest.

According to general manager Bill Gillespie the company’s customer base has stagnated to a point where he felt he was talking to the same people, the repeat customers already won over to the brand.

“There’s no doubt that people think Peugeot is a conservative brand, and that’s been built up over the years,” he said.

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“We’ve got a lot of exciting things to talk about with the brand, we’ve got some great cars, but I don’t think we were telling people enough about that.”

Hero car of the new campaign is the RCZ which has been refreshed with revised frontal styling, some interior touches and more standard equipment including satellite navigation on all models.

Although there have been no mechanical changes Gillespie feels the RCZ is already a strong performance package as shown by its class win at Bathurst, but the company needs to get the message across.

“A lot of work has gone into that suspension. It’s a good chassis and I don’t think we really showed the car to that full potential,” he said

“My view is, I guess, and I hate to say it, that people felt it was a bit of a hairdressers’ car; a nice looking car, but it wouldn’t really be a performance car.

“So without wanting to have a hairy chested approach to everything we just want to be a little bit more performance oriented.”

The facelifted RCZ is exactly that: a largely cosmetic upgrade focusing on things like new bi-xenon headlights and LED daytime running lights at the front, a matt black finish to the arching door and rear window surrounds, new 19-inch alloy wheels and interior details such as a smaller steering wheel with a flattened lower section.

As before there are three models: a 1.6-litre turbo manual with 147kW of power and a six-speed automatic version of the same engine detuned to 115kW. A 2.0-litre turbo diesel – available only with a manual transmission – is available to special dealer order.

All three variants now cost $58,990 or $4000 more than previously, although Peugeot says the upgrade includes $5800 of extra value.

Driving the more powerful petrol manual version on Melbourne’s high-speed Sandown racetrack showed that unlike some of Peugeot’s more stodgy recent offerings, the RCZ can actually be quite a bit of fun.

The engine not only had enough punch to propel the RCZ to around 180km/h down the front straight, but could exit most corners smoothly and cleanly in third gear thanks to 275Nm of torque, or pulling power.

The car’s low and wide stance helped mitigate body roll, and while the handling balance tended towards understeer (the front tyres pushing wide in corners) it was not overly pronounced and subtly reined in by electronic stability control.

Rather than being a hairy-chested muscle car, the RCZ feels light, almost delicate and easy to drive quickly in the right circumstances.

Unlike some rivals – and Peugeot says the RCZ is aimed squarely at the likes of the Audi TT – it also has a surprising amount of practicality given the generously sized boot that can carry at least two large suitcases.

According to Gillespie the pre-facelifted car has so far appealed to a mix of customers that is split evenly between men and women.

Given the focus of the new ad campaign is on the car’s performance, he says there will be a slight skew towards making it more popular with male buyers.

“I suppose the feeling is that females will buy a car that’s pitched slightly more male, but males won’t buy a car that’s pitched slightly more female.”

Leveraging Peugeot’s motorsport heritage is also important, whether it be participation at Le Mans, WRC, Bathurst, Pikes Peak or Dakar.

“Many brands would love to have our heritage and I just really felt that we weren’t using it properly,” he said.

33 comments so far

One day, Peugeot are going to get the design right, and come up with a real winner of a coupe. I saw a black RCZ in traffic this morning. Not quite there yet though; I think that BMW and Audi coupes look better, but the latest Peugeot 'facelift' is an improvement on the yawn!

Commenter

a perspective

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 8:57AM

Um the 406 Coupe:

“The Most Beautiful Coupé of the World 1997”, Milan Triennale, “Car Design Award 1997”, Turin, “The Most Beautiful Car of the Year 1998”, Festival of Chamonix.

They are European awards including Milan, I think I'll trust their taste over yours.

Commenter

BB

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 11:41AM

I don't think they will. They directly copied the TT for this thing. Peugot's are not good looking cars generally. They are completely un-inspiring and are a total waste of road space. As for those car awards, they were nearly 20 years ago...

Commenter

Machiehead89

Location

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 1:13PM

Wow it has vaguely the same roofline, must be a direct copy then!

The same company that developed the Audi TT also developed the RCZ (Magna Steyr, in conjunction with the respective manufacturers). Make of that what you will...

Commenter

Problem?

Location

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 1:39PM

Lame front. Bloated and open-mouthed, as if it had swallowed a 2CV.

Commenter

greg

Location

Date and time

May 13, 2013, 2:33PM

Like many Peugeot cars, gorgeous to look at, great to drive, but have they addressed the myriad reliability issues? I remember a friend picking up a 206 where the speedo failed on the drive out of the dealership, then the tacho, then the windscreen wipers, the headlights, and the gearbox eventually went too.

Given the specs and the look of the RCZ I'd love to own one, and the older series looked awesome in the flesh, but too many stories of broken cars for my liking.

Commenter

SKay

Location

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 9:09AM

STay away Skay, I had a nightmare with my wifes 207. The list could go on and on. The most painful thing about the 32K spent on the hatch was that the dealer and Pug Australia wanted nothing to do with us or the problems we had.

Commenter

Justincrdable

Location

SYD

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 9:24AM

All I can talk about is my own experience. But our 508 has been flawless. A beautiful car to own and drive.

Commenter

Damian

Location

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 10:31AM

The 207 was named the most reliable car in Europe.

Commenter

BB

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 11:43AM

Depends a lot on luck, but anecdotally they aren't as well put together as a Japanese equivalent (not that there are many Japanese equivalents).

That said, I daily drive an automatic 306 that is 13 years old and the only issues I've had in 7 years of ownership are minor niggles - no major mechanical issues, not even with the gearbox (which surprises even me).

I have to say that whatever glue they use is pretty bad though - how many 306's do you see without the badge on the back? (mine included). I also had a day about a year ago where pretty much all of the velour interior trim on the doors came unstuck at the same time and now forms a baggy rouche-like effect.